Lessons on creativity from The Beatles: Get Back

The Beatles are widely considered to be one of the most creative bands the world has ever seen — for many, the group is the first thing that comes to mind when they hear the word “creativity”.

Luckily for us, that legendary creativity was on full display in the new Disney+ documentary Get Back. Over the span of nearly 8 hours, you watch as songs are developed, starting off as the faintest hints of a melody and evolving slowly into the classic works of art they became.

While the documentary is about music, I couldn’t help but feel like I was seeing valuable lessons I can use as a designer, as well. Here’s a rundown of the major lessons I took away, as well as tips on how to incorporate them into your design process.

The road to good runs through bad

One thing that may surprise a lot of people is just how messy the process was. There was bad singing, sloppy playing, mumbled lyrics, and a host of other musical “sins” that may seem shocking from such an accomplished group.

In reality, this messiness has many positive effects. In particular, it removes the pressure to be perfect, which can absolutely cripple creativity. Music, like design, almost never starts out in a perfect state, and instead must be developed and evolved. Being messy helps to break out of the “perfection” mindset, while sending a subconscious signal to their bandmates that it’s ok for them to let their guard down, as well.

It also let them save their energy. Mumbling out a melody is a bit like scribbling out a wireframe on a whiteboard instead of putting together a more polished mockup. This cheaper, lighter approach makes it easier to play with ideas there in the moment, which ultimately gives the group time and energy to explore more.

Irreverence

They were also surprisingly irreverent with the music. At one point, they sang Two of Us through clenched teeth. They constantly used silly voices, played in the “wrong” tempo, and made up “fake” lyrics.

The secret here is that being messy and loose isn’t a side effect of the creative process, it’s the root of it. These “wrong” versions revealed new rhythms, feels, and directions a song could move in. Throwing around “wrong ideas” expands the possibilities of what a given song is allowed to be. We see the same thing in runway fashion and with concept cars — playing with more extreme directions moves the goalposts of possibility and acceptability. It creates a bigger space to play in.

Perhaps more than anything, irreverence helped them avoid being too precious about anything. It lets new directions present themselves — ultimately turning the creative process into a discovery and curation process.

A playful, relaxed environment

That irreverence also helped to keep things playful. And this playfulness was everywhere — they joked with each other a lot.

But all this screwing around wasn’t just a waste of time. Studies have shown that being relaxed and happy leads to better creative thinking. A playful environment made it easier for their minds to think divergently, which helps us draw a straight line between their joking around and the variety of musical ideas they came up with.

In addition, it also helped the group to break the monotony and better enjoy each other’s company while working together for long periods. For them, humor joined irreverence and messiness as key components of a relaxed and playful creative environment. It turned a workspace into a playspace.

Yes, and…

We often think of musical masterpieces as being obsessed over for hours to get each note right. Instead, when they looked for solutions, they were often happy to press ahead with the first workable option that presented itself. They could afford to not be too precious, because they knew they’d replace it just as quickly if they came across something they liked better.

Going with “better” instead of obsessing over “perfect” helped them to keep moving. This prevented roadblocks from forming and freed them up to find new and better options with less time and effort.

This is what allowed them to keep moving forward in an inherently chaotic process.

No ownership

Throughout the process, you would see bandmates pick up and play with songs like they’re toys to be shared. George started toying with Ringo’s song mere moments after hearing it, John & Paul sang songs the other had written, and the group took in song ideas and feedback from Billy Preston and other non-Beatles in the room. The whole time, there was no permission sought or granted. There was an unstated understanding that nobody really owns music.

You also see this lack of ownership elsewhere, like in how they’d occasionally play someone else’s instrument when they weren’t around. They even brought in songs from other bands, mixing melodies with their own songs or simply playing them out to explore them. No input was unwelcome, and no inspiration was off-limits.

At one point, George says “It should be where if you write a song, I feel as though I wrote it. And vice versa.” Not only does this increase their sense of buy-in with the results, it also makes the work better to have had the input of more people.

Alone & together

While much of their process happened together, as a group, there were often ideas that were worked on independently. Coming back into the studio each day, bandmates would share ideas they came up with on their own time, before diving into them together as a group.

This allowed for “parallel ideation”, which involves taking a prompt and moving back and forth between smaller groups of 1–3 people and the full group. Doing this lets ideas develop in several different directions simultaneously, and then get cross-pollinated when getting back together as a full group. Switching between small groupings and the full group allows people to explore ideas in ways that are impossible in either of these settings, alone.

Limitations

In all the chaos of the recording process, it would be easy to let things spiral out of control without some sort of guard rails. Many designers know how strict time limits can help drive them to get things done. The Beatles were really no different, giving themselves full flexibility in many ways, but setting a (semi-strict) completion date. This helped to give their sessions a clearer purpose and sense of direction.

The right tools & equipment

At the start, when the group was in Twickenham, they were finding themselves at odds with the space they were in. The size of the space meant it was hard for them to get a sound they could really use. After a few days, they switched to a more traditional recording studio.

In other words, the tools used in their creative process had a direct effect on their ability to explore creatively. Problems with their tools, like the studio space and their instruments, meant being faced with additional effort when trying to play with ideas. Getting the tools “out of the way” removed obstacles to their creative process.

Takeaways

• The road to good runs through bad. Many great things were built in a messy garage. Don’t be afraid to get messy during the brainstorming process (in fact, you should encourage it). Emphasize that there is no judgement while brainstorming — try to save it for later, when narrowing options down.
• Play in the realm of wrong. Break out of the “perfection” mindset early on by using the prompt “What is something that would never work?” This gives folks permission to start naming more extreme and absurd examples. What I’ve found fascinating, though, is how often these “wrong” ideas are actually workable (and even clever!) once you think about them for a moment or two. This helps you extend the realm of possibilities, and helps inspire new directions to explore.
• Don’t be too precious about what you’re working on. Remember that you marry the problem, not the solution. If your app is blue, try a set of ideas in pink. Take the project off of a pedestal by giving it a silly codename. Start with prompts like “What would this look like if it was done in the 80s?”, “How would a bigger/smaller company do this?”, and “What would we want to build if we started fresh today?” These prompts should be explored with no intention of them producing “good” results on their own — instead, they’ll show you the problem from new angles and help point you to more workable solutions.
• Create a playspace for exploration. Start brainstorm sessions off by giving each participant a small gift, like a piece of chocolate, and provide some latitude for joking around during the process. These are small things that can quickly lift spirits and lead to better outcomes.
• Perfect is the enemy of good. When narrowing down your options, don’t be afraid to pick up a workable idea even if it’s less than ideal. Above all, keep moving — pick things up quickly, and replace them with better options just as quickly.
• Everyone in the room during a brainstorm is an equal. Borrow ideas and work from others on your team, and make the things you came up with freely available for them to play with, too. Listen to ideas and feedback from non-designers in the room — even the janitor. Let ideas belong to the group, not individuals.
• Break out into smaller groups of no more than 3 people to give ideas a chance to develop in ways impossible in a full-group setting. Use separate rooms (physical or virtual) to throw around ideas without crosstalk from others, then reconvene to share with everyone. Use parallel ideation techniques like these to drill deeper on a single topic, or to explore pushing multiple topics forward simultaneously.
• Set clear limits upfront to keep things on track. Spell out the problems to be explored and indicate the end time — I’ve found it’s valuable to start by writing these out in a corner of a whiteboard so that they anchor the discussion moving forward. Choose as few limits as possible, then try to be rigid about these limits and flexible about everything else.
• Lastly, don’t ignore your tools. Make sure your markers work, your Wi-Fi is strong, your chairs are comfortable, and so on. Change rooms, if you need to. Small issues can kill your momentum and make the process a chore, so don’t hesitate to pull out all the stops to make sure things stay fluid.

Even if you’re not a Beatles fan, I’d recommend taking a look at the documentary, if for no other reason than it leaves you feeling inspired to create something. It’s an incredible look at the process of creating something great by true masters of their craft, with all of the messy, silly irreverence that entails. A Long and Winding Road, indeed.

If you’ve enjoyed this, you may also enjoy my upcoming book on design and usability called Learnability Isn’t Enough. Learn more and join the email list for updates at book.hansv.com